WHEN WILL THE WAR END?

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14654, 7 March 1918, Page 6

WHEN WILL THE WAR END?

L The best answer to the question which was being widely discussed at the beginning of the year in England I and Amerca wjijs that the war would I end when wo had achieved victory (says ! the "Press"). It is true that this was $ no real answer to the question, but j there can, of be no answer i-o ■!■ .such -a .question .at■•••the present- stage. l $ Opinions, as;, to .the .time .:ttat %bukl I elapse before -peace is = declared varied in ;an -extraordinarymanner. One view j * was that peace would come in four j months or a year, another in a year or lour years, while the members* of the „ American Mission to Groat Britain1 and France, of which Colonel House was' s -the lead, expressed the opinion that; the Allies and the United States could I lay a firm foundation for peace this ;' i year, but they held oi.t no hope that s; the war would actually end in less .than two years. Tiose who believed iti January that another four montu& might possibly see the end of the strug--1 gle pinned tlieir faith to the efforts, of It-he diplomats, but witt ou.t^ any very I strong conviction that tliose efforts 2 would be successful. It was argued by some that if it had not been.for America's entry into the war, peace , would have come in the early part of " the year. The opinion is not quite so L,' read as it looks, because, if tie Allies >n r-c-re not trusting to America to be of a Dine material n.ssisfcanr>p +« +inpni in the I Held, something like a stalemate might I conceivably have been arrived at before if long, both sides being unable to fight U to a decision. But the resulting peace could not have been permanent; all that it woivld fcave yielded would have boon a breathing space in which the i combatants could recruit their ener--1 gles. Better to fight for another year, ' or even two if, at the end, we win the •■peace tiat victory wiTl give us, one that shall ensure the end of the war for ouv J time at least, possibly for mujoh longer. ! And it is because they look forward «*l longingly to that peace that- the Allies m: and America are prepared to fight foi a, even two years longer.